Ministering to the troops, in war and in peace

REGINA, SK: OCTOBER 30, 2012 -- Padre DJ Kim who is a captain with the Royal Regina Rifles Reserve at the armouries building in Regina on October 30, 2012. Kim's full name is Dong Joo Kim. (Don Healy / Leader-Post)
(Story by Drew Fossum) (QC)

Photograph by: Don Healy
, Regina Leader-Post

Major Sandy Scott’s small office is packed with memorabilia from his career in the Canadian Forces. Covering the wall, are newspaper clippings, photos of Afghanistan and a picture of Scott receiving a Meritorious Service Medal from the Chief of Defense Staff cover the walls.

There is also a stack of free bibles on a shelf by the door next to his preacher’s scarf. Scott is a reservist chaplain in the Canadian Army. A padre, as they are called in the forces — a holy soldier tasked with a mission to keep soldiers spiritually sound.

Scott sits back in his chair and smiles when he talks about becoming a chaplain. But his tone is different when the subject is Afghanistan.

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March 6, 2010. Scott has been in Afghanistan for just over six months and has only a couple more to go.

The Afghan winter is long over but the morning desert is cold as a Canadian Forces patrol rolls out of Forward Operating Base Wilson.

Padre Scott is spending time with the troops. He knows them well after the six-month deployment. Just as he finishes a workout, reports scream over the radio that a soldier has been hit by an improvised explosive device (IED).

Chaplains offer their soldiers guidance and support. In times of crisis, they also break the bad news. This is one of those days.

Padre Scott tells the troops that one of their own has been seriously hurt in an IED attack. They bow their heads for a short prayer and wait to hear more.

What they learn is that Cpl. Darren Fitzpatrick lost both his legs, close to his waist. He was loaded onto a Black Hawk helicopter and taken to hospital at Kandahar Air Field, but the situation is dire. The Commanding Officer of the unit, who was near Fitzpatrick when the bomb went off, orders Scott to lead another round of prayer.

“You know, at that point, all that is left is prayer,” Scott says.

Canadian riflemen worked hard to keep Fitzpatrick alive. He had been a driver with a unit that was tasked to train the Afghan National Army. With only a couple of months left in his tour, he wanted to put some miles on his boots. The March 6 foot patrol was his first.

On March 20, back home in Canada, Cpl. Fitzpatrick died.

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As Scott remembers that day, he chooses his words carefully, often backing up to add details. He is determined to honour the story. Finally, he shakes his head and concedes it was the lowest point of his tour of duty.

“When a wounded soldier makes it back to Canada, you think he is going to be OK. You think he has it made in the shade,” he says.

After six months overseas, Scott was emotionally drained from being the crutch that soldiers lean on in the unforgiving heat and on their darkest days.

Fitzpatrick’s was not the first military death Padre Scott experienced. Over the course of his career, and throughout the mission in Afghanistan, he had to notify the families of seven soldiers killed in action overseas.

Every death is unique, but breaking the news is routine. In his dress uniform, the padre knocks on the door with a high-ranking officer beside him. As the officer gives them the news, loved ones often collapse. Then the officer’s stoic facade dissolves and the padre steps in to help him regain composure. The minister is committed to stay by the family’s side for the next two weeks.

Major Sandy Scott has deep roots in the military. “In some way, shape, or form, I have always been a part of the military for as long as I can remember,” he says.

His uncle was Staff Sergeant Hugh Cairns, who won a Victoria Cross in the First World War. During University, Scott was a student chaplain on army bases in the summer. He even met his wife on an army base.

Scott and his wife, who was also in the military, put down roots in Prince Albert in 1995. He then joined the North Saskatchewan Regiment’s “B” Company out of Prince Albert in 2001 as the unit’s padre.

Life is hectic. He balances military obligations with those of his church, St. Paul’s Presbyterian. “I love doing parish ministering and I love doing this work. I love soldiering and soldiers need good chaplains,” Scott said.

Chaplains have been an integral part of the army since the beginning of the Canadian military. They were active in both world wars and every multinational mission the Canadian military has participated in.

Just like any soldier, basic training is mandatory for padres. They undergo regular physical testing and endure the same elements as the troops in training.

“You build relationships with those soldiers. Those relationships, particularly when we deploy, bear a lot of fruit,” Scott said.

It’s about loitering with intent. Being present in the good times and the bad.

Being a padre isn’t only about caring for soldiers during conflict. The effects of war last long after the troops come home. The memory of lost friends and traumatic moments settle like sand in water but rise to the top when unexpectedly shaken.

*****

Padre Don Joo Kim, a captain in the Royal Regina Rifles, waits for that moment.

“I am not here to convert anybody. I am here to help the troops make sense of what they do. These guys run forward, into danger when everyone else runs away. They need someone to help them make sense of that.”

“Day or night, my boys know my phone is on 24 hours a day,” Kim said.

One night, Padre Kim rushed to a soldier’s house, after getting a desperate plea.

After a long chat, the troop told him: “Padre, if you were five minutes later, I am not sure we would be having this conversation. You saved my life.”

“Those are the good days,” Kim said. “The days when you make a difference with a soldier.”

Padre Kim is solidly built for a man of 53 and sports black hair with only a smattering of grey. He animates what he says with gestures and facial expressions. Around soldiers, he tells self-deprecating jokes and falls back on physical humour when all else fails. He talks about his troops with affection, saying he gets back all the love he gives them.

Kim illustrates that with a story that almost brings him to tears. He was on a brigade exercise last May in southern Manitoba. It was classic spring weather, blazing sun one moment and sleet the next.

He spent the week humping out patrols and pumping the troops full of morale. Near the end of the exercise, he received a call from his wife. The sewer was backing up into their newly renovated basement.

Four hours away and with no family to come to his aid, Kim did the only thing he could think of. “I texted one of my riflemen and asked for his help. He said ‘Padre, don’t worry. You take care of our boys in the field, we will take care of your family back here’,” Kim said.

Ten minutes later, a handful of reservists poured into his house, moved the furniture to higher ground, fixed the backed up sewer and minimized the damage to basement.

“I was overwhelmed. It affirmed the work I was doing. I knew I was taking care of the guys, when they took that good of care of me,” he said.

Kim joined the Canadian Army Reserve as a padre in 2008, but it wasn’t his first military experience. He served with the South Korean infantry for three years.

He was deployed on the North/South Korean border, where tensions often run high amid constant threats from the isolated neighbour to the north.

In 1993, he moved to Canada to attend the Concordia Lutheran Seminary. Afterwards, he and his family moved to Neudorf, Saskatchewan to minister a church with the Lutheran Church of Canada Central District.

“God picks me and my family up from a city of 1.5 million people and puts us down in rural Saskatchewan. He certainly has a sense of humour,” Kim laughs.

There were some adjustments, but he and his family fell in love with small-town living: Hockey, community suppers, school sports.

But, he never lost his desire to be a soldier again.

“Once a soldier always a soldier. I felt like I needed to be a part of (the army) again. Be with the men in the field.”

Kim said goodbye to his congregation, moved his family to Regina and took a pay cut to become a street minister and army padre. He’s also a chaplain with the Regina Police Service. Being a padre and police chaplain, Kim seems always to be on the front lines.

*****

On Remembrance Day, Canada’s soldiers will march onto parade squares, lay wreaths and fire salutes to their fallen comrades. The public will watch.

Padres like Major Scott and Captain Kim will be looking on as well, but in a different way. They will be watching for those who need help making sense of it all. The padres suffered losses too, but they restrain their emotions so they can be there for the soldiers who need them.

Services and vigils at monuments will come to a quiet end. The soldiers will gather for a couple of customary pitchers at the local legion. The public will go back to their normal day.

But the padres will go home. They will sort through their own emotions. And wait for the next call.

Drew Fossum is journalism student and a veteran of the Canadian Forces. He served with the 1st Royal Canadian Horse Artillery in southern Afghanistan from October 2009 to May, 2010.

REGINA, SK: OCTOBER 30, 2012 -- Padre DJ Kim who is a captain with the Royal Regina Rifles Reserve at the armouries building in Regina on October 30, 2012. Kim's full name is Dong Joo Kim. (Don Healy / Leader-Post)
(Story by Drew Fossum) (QC)